// 7 Q U I C K T A K E S v o l 1 2: the anniversary edition //

linking up with Jen for some quick takes

//

Today Alex and I celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. And I thought I would salute our marriage by dedicating a quick takes to some of the most memorable moments from these last 5 years of marriage.

//1//

In 2010, for our first anniversary, we went to France and Italy. It had been a very warm October here in Minnesota, and so the thought had never crossed my mind that it might be different in Europe.  Well, it was about 40 degrees everyday in France, we hadn't packed nearly enough warm clothes, and we were freezing the entire time we were there. The day of our anniversary we were leaving Paris by train to go to Dijon, but that was also the day the entire country was on strike. Our train was canceled, and we had to wait in a partially outdoor train station in the freezing cold for a train to become available. We asked everyone and even looked into renting a car. 

Finally, after hours of sitting in the freezing train station we were able to get a couple seats on a train and get out of Paris.  When we got to Dijon it was cold, dark and rainy.  We dumped our stuff at our hotel, went in search of a restaurant, and had the most amazing meal of our entire lives. Boeuf bourguignon, magret de canard, oysters, and escargot, which I did not think I would like but thought I should try because it's so cultural.  Turns out, I love snails! Maybe the food just tasted so good because we had been cold and starving all day long, or maybe it was really a fantastic restaurant  Either way, it was delish and I will never forget it.

Snails! they look great, don't they?

//2//

Planting our garden is something we look forward to every year. Every spring we brainstorm about what veggies we want to grow.  And then about mid May, when the danger of frost is (or better darn well be) over we spend a morning at the St. Paul farmers market picking out our plants. Then we come home, get on our hands and knees, and put the garden in.

The first summer we were in our house we bought a raspberry plant.  Just one little shoot. We planted it and didn't get a single berry for the first two years.  But little by little it has grown and bears a little more fruit each year. (good metaphor for our marriage, right?) This year it was so fun to see Johnny enjoy the garden. He loves eating fresh raspberries straight of the bushes. 

//3//

Alex and I have experienced a lot of negative pregnancy tests together. Getting up early, Alex setting a 2 minute timer on his phone, waiting breathlessly, and then crawling back into bed totally crushed by disappointment. All that disappointment has only made the two positive pregnancy tests we've had all more amazing. The first one was absolute elation after trying for 6 months.  The second one, over a year after our miscarriage, was more somber.  We were excited, and scared, and immediately sought the Lord in prayer. It's been hard and it's been good, and we've been through it all together.

//4//

Opposites attract, right? Well, I wouldn't call Alex and myself opposites. We have quite a bit in common. But there are a few things that we are dead opposites about.  

1. I love mornings in the spring and summer when, just as the sun is beginning to rise, the birds start to sing. We sleep with our windows open whenever the weather allows for it, and I love hearing the birds sing during those early hours, they make the perfect soundtrack to snoozing.  Alex, on the other hand, hates it. He will close the windows, no matter how stuffy it makes our room and turns all the fans on high to try to drown them out. It's so sad. 

2. Alex is super fastidious about his hands being clean.  Anytime he eats anything even remotely sticky- jam, honey, ice cream, maple syrup is the worst offender- he can't rest until he was gotten rid of all the stickiness.  But that stuff doesn't bother me.  I confess, that sometimes after eating, say, pancakes with maple syrup, I will just lick my fingers and go on with my day. I know, it's gross and childish, but it's the truth.  And it makes Alex a little crazy. 

3. I have theory that every couple has a spender and a saver, to balance each other out.  The saver keeps the spender from sending them to the poor house, and the spender keeps the saver from becoming a miser.  

Alex is the saver, and I'm the spender. He will always buy off brands, he will always buy the cheapest thing (that has good reviews) and he will wait as long as he can to replace an item that has broken/worn out/no longer fits.  I will always choose the brand names,  if I find out something is expensive that makes me like it better, and I will take any and all excuses to go buy something. Yeah, I'd say we need each other. 

//5//

Getting married is hard (on many levels) because you don't just have this new person you're sharing your life with.  You have all their family and friends that you're sharing your life with too! The number of holiday gatherings to attend is instantly doubled, as is the number of friends you need to try to keep up with.  For some people this can be a real stresser, but I am have been fortunate enough to marry into family and friends that I really like. We do double duty on almost every holiday, and while we end up eating way too much food, it's super fun! And Alex's friends are no longer his friends, they're our friends. And I often see them without him. It's been a pretty huge blessing. 

These girls all went to high school with Alex, and now I do girls night out with them!

//6//

We spent 8 days in the NICU after Johnny was born.  Those were by far the worst days of my life. But a lot of really special things happened there. I learned to breastfeed in the NICU, we had so much encouragement coming in everyday through Facebook and emails. Alex and I clung to each other and relied on our families more than we've ever had to before. 

The first night Johnny was in the NICU I slept at my parents house because I needed rest and we all thought I would sleep better there. Wrong.  I was up almost the entire night crying and worrying about my two-day-old baby. So after that I slept at the NICU with Alex.  We shared a tiny little pull-out couch/bed that was not much bigger than a twin. Every night we would unfold our scratchy hospital blankets, and squeeze onto our little bed. I was still sore and weak from giving birth, and nurses were in and out of our room almost every hour to check on Johnny, but that's where I wanted to be. We both wanted to be there. I will never forget what it was like to spend our first week of parenthood in such an intense setting. Because of that week we know we can handle anything together. 

//7//

By far this little guy has been the biggest highlight of our marriage.  During the time that it was just us we got to sleep a lot more, and go on more dates, and do a lot of fun things, like travel the world together,  But at the end of the day when Alex gets home from work and Johnny's running around naked after his bath, well, that's when we know that we've really got it good now.

//

for more quick takes visit conversion diary

want to keep up with this blog? be sure to subscribe!

Enter your email address:

or follow me on feedly   

or on bloglovin'. 

//17. how to love a villain //

//

What makes a good movie? A great story line, or maybe a lovable hero, or beautiful cinematography? Sure, everyone loves a good hero, but for my dad, it's a good villain that makes a movie memorable. Especially in the old classics. The villains have so much character, and so many great lines to quote long after the movie has ended. 

Lionel Barrymore plays Henry F. Potter in It's a Wonderful life- such a great villain with so many great lines. My family is constantly quoting him:

You like them? I'll send you a box.

Happy New Year to you! In jail!

You once called me a warped, frustrated, old man! What are you but a warped, frustrated young man? 

No securities, no stocks, no bonds, nothin' but a miserable little $500 equity in a

 life insurance policy. You're worth more dead than alive!

My dad's all time favorite villain is Edward G. Robinson. The Villain to end all villains

Johnny Rocco in Key Largo,  or Dathan in The Ten Commandments,  he's always a gangster, always a thug, always wonderful. I feel sort of bad that he always got cast as bad guy and worried that maybe he had some terrible complex because of it, but my dad has assured me that he was actually a very pleasant man in real life. 

I have been watching Gilmore Girls lately (thank you Netflix!) and have been thinking that Emily Gilmore is to me what those other villains are to my dad. They're evil, they're always they source of discord, and you hate them.  But they're also hilarious, and witty, and you can't help but love them. 

//

This post is a part of:

What to keep up with this series? Be sure to subscribe!

Enter your email address:

or follow me on feedly   

or on bloglovin'. 

//16. how to love pride and prejudice //

//

My mom reads Pride and Prejudice literally every year. I'm not kidding. She has read that book more than anyone I know and, I dare say, more than anyone you know, too! Each time she reads it she enjoys it more and more.  She still laughs at the funny parts. She still stays up late reading, just dying to find out what happens next. She still cries when she gets to the end. 

A love for P&P isn't just something she's passed on to me, it' something she has taught our entire family. My older brother, sister, and I have all read the book multiple times. And my little brother and dad, if they haven't read it, at least love the movie version

Not this movie version. 

Keira Knightley just needs to go away.

Ah...that's better. 

Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, the perfect Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. But I digress....

The first time we watched this 6 part A&E mini series I was probably around 12 years old. My cousin brought the movies with her when she came to stay with us that summer. We watched one episode one day, the second episode the next day, and then episodes 3-6 the third day! Because when it gets good, you just can't stop. I thought it was pretty cool that my mom let us watch that many episodes in a row. Now it's a family tradition to bring the P&P movies to the summer trip to the cabin. Everyone, even my 19-year-old kid brother, looks forward to watching them. 

//

This post is a part of:

What to keep up with this series? Be sure to subscribe!

Enter your email address:

or follow me on feedly   

or on bloglovin'. 

15. how to enjoy a good book //

//

"I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!

 How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book!"

- Jane Austin, Pride and Prejudice

I don't think there is anyone who can enjoy a book more than my mom. She is "a great reader,"  as they would say in P&P, and always has some book going. 

She's the kind of reader who can tune everything else around her out and be totally engrossed in her book. I remember many a day growing up when during lunch she would pick up her book and read, and we would be so loud and noisy around the table and she wouldn't hear any of it.  We would finish our lunch and she would keep reading  We would be running around the house screaming and she would keep reading. When we needed to get her attention we would shout something like "the house is on fire!" And she'd calmly look up and say "what?"

She's also the kind of reader who will stay up all night finishing a book. My dad tells a story from very early in their marriage, when my mom was reading A Tale of Two Cities. My dad woke up in the middle of the night to sound of my mom crying.  Totally panicked, he sat up in bed asking what was wrong. Nothing! She said. She had just finished her book, and it was so good!

 I remember, when I was old enough to stay out late, there was hardly ever a time that I would come home and mom was not sitting up in bed reading.  Some mornings our home school would get an extra late start because she just had to stay up and finish a book the night before. And if ever I stayed up late finishing a good book she was always understanding and let me sleep in a little extra. 

Another adulthood goal of mine: to become a great reader, like my mom. 

//

This post is a part of:

What to keep up with this series? Be sure to subscribe!

Enter your email address:

or follow me on feedly   

or on bloglovin'. 

// 14. how to sort laundry //

//

Sorting laundry. It didn't used to be complicated.  It used to be the three basic categories: lights, whites, and darks. But then all the white socks were so much more soiled than all the rest of the whites and mom felt the need to wash them separately. But once you start making subcategories, it's a slippery slope.  Next were the reds, they would bleed all over anything with any amount of white. So they got their own category as well. Lights, well, that's just way too vague a term. Do you mean to tell me it makes sense to wash a bright pink shirt with a pair of khaki pants? I didn't think so.

More subcategories.

Until we had not 3, not 5, but 7 different categories for sorting laundry.  And they are: lights, whites, darks, white socks and underwear, dark socks and underwear, grays and khakis, and reds.

This is how I learned to sort laundry.  But this is one of the things my mother taught me that didn't stick.  My first backlash came when I was in high school. Being a red-head I don't wear a lot of red, but I've always had one or two items of the right shade that I can pull off. Actually most of the people in my family don't wear a lot of red, But there it was in the laundry room, an entire hamper dedicated to red laundry. The time that elapsed from when you put a red item in the hamper to when there were enough items to merit a wash cycle was sometimes up to 3 weeks. Ain't nobody got time for that! So occasionally I would sneak my red garment in with a load of darks to ensure a quicker turn-around time.

Then I went away to college.  Well, I only went 10 minutes away from home, so I rarely did laundry on campus.  But when I went home I usually only had time to do one load, so everything, and I mean EVERYTHING  went into one load all together. My mom of course was horrified, but I reassured her that I did it on cold. 

Now, after having been through both extremes of laundry sorting, I have decided to go back to the original three categories. But I still think of my mom when I find a particularly dirty pair of socks that's about to go into a load of whites. I can't bring myself to send it through with the rest of the whites, and usually sneak it in with the lights instead. 

This post is a part of:

What to keep up with this series? Be sure to subscribe!

Enter your email address:

or follow me on feedly   

or on bloglovin'. 

// 13. how to fold towels //

//

This is the only proper way to fold towels: in thirds the long way, then in half, and in half again. Hand towels, bath towels, kitchen towels, all should be folded in this way. 

When I was growing up and would help my mom fold the laundry it used to drive me nuts that she insisted on folding the towels that way. I would try to just fold them in half and in half again and would always get caught.  But wouldn't you know it, now that I am an adult running my own house I can't fold towels any other way. Now I'm the one insisting that other people (sorry Alex) fold towels this way.

I can safely and without a doubt say that I am turning into my mother. 

//

This post is a part of:

What to keep up with this series? Be sure to subscribe!

Enter your email address:

or follow me on feedly   

or on bloglovin'. 

12. weird rules //

//

We had a lot of weird rules growing up. Such that I was often teased by my friends about them. (all in love, of course.) I thought I would share a few of them with you. 

1. Don't stand in front of the microwave. You might expose yourself to radiation.  

2. Also, wait an additional 3 seconds before opening the microwave door, in case there are residual microwaves still bouncing around in there. 

3. Don't needlessly open or close the garage door, or you'll wear out the motor.  If you need to open the garage door, and you know someone will be home in the next hour or so, leave it open until they get home. Don't know when they'll be home? Call them up. That's why we have cell phones, after all.

4. The only things that could go in the dishwasher were silverware, plates, bowls, and cups.  No cookware, no Tupperware, and no fancy coffee mugs. I never really questioned this rule until I met Alex and saw that his family puts EVERYTHING in the dishwasher.  I was at first a little scandalized, but have come around to the notion of putting everything in the dishwasher. And now that we have a dishwasher of our own (we didn't for the first 4 years of our marriage) I do so with great relish! 

5. Don't waste charge cycles on the cordless phones. Did you know that cordless phones have a limited number of charge cycles? Well they do, (or did 10 years ago) and every time you hang up the cordless phone on it's base, and then pick it up again, you have wasted a charge cycle. The solution to this problem is don't put the cordless phone back on it's base until the end of the day when it can fully charge over night.  The problem with this solution is that often times the cordless phone would get lost, then the battery would die, and we couldn't find it because it wouldn't ring. 

You think this is crazy? Just wait until you see the post where I detail how we sort laundry!

This post is a part of:

What to keep up with this series? Be sure to subscribe!

Enter your email address:

or follow me on feedly   

or on bloglovin'. 

11. how to clean

//

My mom taught me so many things.  I was, as you know, home-schooled, so it would not be inaccurate to say she really taught me everything I know. Among history lessons, how to make dinner, writing thank you notes, and all the other things she taught me, one of the things that stands out the most is that she taught me how to clean.

I'm not saying our house was super clean all the times. Our bookshelves and fireplace mantle would not have passed Mary Poppins' white glove inspection unless company was coming over. But when we did cleaned, we cleaned really well. 

I also think that I learned to clean from a young age.  Now this is a point of contention between my mother and myself. I am quite certain I was cleaning the bathrooms by the age of 7, but she insists that she didn't have me doing that until I was more like 10. In any case, I was scrubbing soap scum, vacuuming in corners and under couches, dusting places no one could even see, and leaving mirrors completely streak free all throughout my growing up years. And as much as I hated it, it had a good affect on me.  I am now, for better or for worse, kind of a neat freak. And I attribute it all to my early exposure to cleaning. (Read between the lines, Johnny will be doing the bathrooms by the times he's 5!)

//

This post is a part of:

What to keep up with this series? Be sure to subscribe!

Enter your email address:

or follow me on feedly   

or on bloglovin'.